I'm frequently using proxy tables for existing remote tables/views. The CREATE EXISTING TABLE syntax is very convenient for that, particularly as I don't have to specify column names and types then.

However, when the remote table/view is altered lateron (say, to add a column), this change is not applied to the proxy table. Furthermore, it seems to be forbidden to use ALTER TABLE on a proxy table to add new columns "manually". As a consequence, one has to drop and recreate the proxy table (and re-assign the according permissions).

Therefore, it would by handy if there was as statement like

ALTER EXISTING TABLE MyTable

working similar to the ALTER VIEW RECOMPILE statement, i.e. it should regenerate the column definitions (and automatically drop/recreate indexes) based on the remote table.

@Justin: AFAIK, that's only true when you relate to different databases on the same database server, and that's a consequence of the SQL Server/ASE "master database architecture". When relating to a different server (via MS linked server), it works similar to SA proxy tables, methinks.